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Giovanni Pisano was engaged on the pulpit in Sant'Andrea, Pistoia, from 1297 till 1301. In form the Pistoia pulpit derives from the pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa, but its effect is utterly dissimilar. The substitution of a Gothic arch for the trilobe arcading in the Pisa archivolt gives the whole scheme a new sense of ascent, and the angle figures are instinct with movement; their function is to deny and not to reinforce the architectural forms. The angle carvings serve to link the narrative reliefs between them so that the sculptured decoration of the pulpit is fused into a rhythmic whole.
The picture shows the angle figure (an Apostle) at the corner between the Massacre of the Innocents and the Crucifixion.
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